Not only our ambassadors but our secret service were swept clean out of
existence. I remember going to Broadley, the day he was appointed
Foreign Minister, and I asked him a simple question. I asked him whether
he did not consider it his duty to keep his finger upon the pulses of
the other great nations, however friendly they might seem, to keep
himself assured that all these expressions of good will were honourable,
and that in the heart of the German nation that great craving for
revenge which is the natural heritage of the present generation had
really become dissipated. Broadley smiled at me. 'Lord Dorminster,' he
said, 'the chief cause of wars in the past has been suspicion. We look
upon espionage as a disgraceful practice. It is the people of Germany
with whom we are in touch now, not a military oligarchy, and the people
of Germany no more desire war than we do. Besides, there is the League
of Nations.' Those were Broadley's views then, and they are his views
to-day. You know what I did?"
Nigel assented cautiously.
"I suppose it is an open secret amongst a few of us," he observed. "You
have been running an unofficial secret service of your own."
"Precisely! I have had a few agents at work for over a year, and when I
have finished decoding this last dispatch, I shall have evidence which
will prove beyond a doubt that we are on the threshold of terrible
events. The worst of it is--well, we have been found out."
"What do you mean?" Nigel asked quickly.
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